TESDA STARTING AIRCRAFT REPAIR COURSES

Starting next year, the Technical Educational Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will offer a new course on aircraft structure repair which is highly in demand in the aviation industry all over the world today.

“I’m excited,” TESDA Director General Agusto L. Syjuco Jr. said after he met on Thursday Jesus R. Lim and Arturo de Jesus, assistant vice president for training, assistant vice president for services, respectively, of Aerotechnik Services, Inc., a wholly-owned Filipino company focusing on aviation. Rolando B. Goco is the president of the firm.

Syjuco said the new curriculum will enable TESDA to maintain its cutting-edge in skills training for Filipinos in aircraft maintenance.

Engr. Jimmy Itao, chairman of the Mechatronics Robotics Society of the Philippines (MRSP) which is assisting TESDA in skills training, said aircraft maintenance mechanics receive fat salaries here and abroad.

TESDA has tapped Aerotechnik Services to conduct the course, including hands-on training for students enrolled in the new curriculum.

Lim’s credentials include 25 years as top caliber aircraft structure technician of Saudi Arabian Airlines and seven years with Philippine Airlines (PAL), while de Jesus worked in various airline companies in the world, including Saudi Arabian Airlines, PAL, Milcom Aviation and Aerospec Aviation both in Singapore and Saudi Arabia and Emirate Airlines as structure mechanic.

TESDA National Capital Region Director Antonio del Rosario also welcomed the new curriculum since TESDA is pursuing high-end technology courses needed in support of the industries.

Del Rosario is also the manager of a co-management partnership with private associations in TESDA.

It was during the Ramos administration that TESDA started to get full funding for the acquisition of modern equipment and continued by the Arroyo government.

On the other hand, Syjuco said students will not be groping in the dark during their study because they will undergo hands-on training of a real jetliner being made as a model that will be brought to the vast TESDA compound in Taguig City, Metro Manila.

Syjuco also said that TESDA has acquired new facilities for students taking the aircraft structure course.

Students will be trained in the repair of all types of aircraft, particularly commercial planes such as the B747, L-1011, B-777, B-737, MD-90, MD-11, Airbus-300 and Airbus-330.

According to Lim, the new graduates of the course will form the nucleus of an all-Filipino aircraft structural mechanics capable of overhauling any type of aircraft.

“There will be no need anymore for Filipino airlines to send their planes for repair abroad as we will do the job here conserving our foreign currency,” Lim said.

He said Filipino aircraft mechanics are among the best in the world.

The average time frame for an aircraft to be overhauled is 60 days. The overhaul will include checking of any corrosion or cracks of the plane’s structure.

“After the overhaul, the aircraft is as good as new,” Lim said.

The “hangar” to be constructed at the TESDA Taguig compound is now undergoing face-lifting and renovation to accommodate the facilities for the aircraft structure repair course. (PNA)